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Abstract
George Perkins Marsh's book Man and Nature was the first work of natural history to fundamentally influence American politics. This paper establishes the powerful impact that Alexander von Humboldt's writings had on Marsh. Marsh took ideas that Humboldt introduced across his books and synthesized them into a single powerful argument regarding the dangers of deforestation. These warnings eventually led to policies that sought to more carefully manage forestland, plant trees, and spawn the 20th century conservation movement.
This paper is based on chapter 21 of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World (2015, Knopf) where additional sources and bibliographical entries can be found.
This paper is based on chapter 21 of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World (2015, Knopf) where additional sources and bibliographical entries can be found.
Notes
This paper is based on chapter 21 of The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World (2015, Knopf) where additional sources and bibliographical entries can be found.
1. “The great, good and”: Joseph Albert Wright to U.S. State Department, 7 May 1859. Alexander von Humboldt in Berlin. Sein Einfluß auf die Entwicklung der Wissenschaften. Edited by Hamel, Jürgen, Eberhard Knobloch, and Herbert Pieper, Augsburg: Erwin Rauner Verlag, 2003, p. 225.
2. “Berlin is plunged”: Morning Post, 9 May 1859.
3. “Alexander von Humboldt is dead”: The Times, 9 May 1859; see also Morning Post, 9 May 1859, Daily News, 9 May 1859, The Standard, 9 May 1859.
4. “from the labors”: Agassiz, L. 1859, Boston Daily Advertiser, 26 May 1859.
5. “most remarkable”: Daily Cleveland Herald, 19 May 1859; see also Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 19 May 1859; North American and United States Gazette, 19 May 1859.
6. “age of Humboldt”: Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859.
7. “the greatest man since”: Friedrich Wilhelm IV quoted in Taylor, B. 1860. The Life, Travels and Books of Alexander von Humboldt, New York: Rudd & Carleton, p. xi.
8. “In this great chain”: Humboldt, A. and Bonpland, A. 2009. Essay on the Geography of Plants, edited by Stephen T. Jackson, Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, p. 79.
9. “future generations”: Humboldt, A. and Bonpland, A. 1814–1829. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the years 1799–1804. Translated by Helen Maria Williams. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and John Murray, vol. 4, p. 143.
10. “we mourn”: Journal of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, vol. 1, no. 8, October 1859, p. 226.
11. “work whose name: Journal of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, vol. 1, no. 8, October 1859, p. 226.
12. “love of nature”: Journal of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, vol. 1, no. 8, October 1859, p. 242.
13. “like an escaped convict”: Marsh to Caroline Marsh, 26 July 1859, Lowenthal, D. 2003. George Perkins Marsh. Prophet of Conservation, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, p. 199.
14. “with all my might”: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 26 August 1859, George Perkins Marsh Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont.
15. “done more to extend”: Marsh, G. P. 1846. ‘speech of Mr. Marsh, of Vermont, on the Bill for Establishing The Smithsonian Institution, Delivered in the House of Representative”, 22 April; Germans and German books: Marsh, G. P. 1888. Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh. Edited by Caroline Crane Marsh, New York: Charles Scribner's and Sons, vol. 1, pp. 90–91, 100, 103; Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 90.
16. “Dutch … can be learned”: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 10 October 1848, Marsh, G. P. 1888. Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh. Edited by Caroline Crane Marsh, New York: Charles Scribner's and Sons, vol. 1, p. 128.
17. Marsh used German words: Marsh to Caroline Escourt, 10 June 1848; Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 15 September 1848; Marsh to Caroline Marsh, 4 October 1858. Marsh, G. P. 1888, vol. 1, pp. 123, 127, 400.
18. “greatest of the priesthood”: Marsh, G. P.,”The Study of Nature”, Christian Examiner, 1860, in Marsh, G. P. 2001. So Great A Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh. Edited by Stephen C. Trombulak. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, p. 83.
19. “forest–born”: Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, 24 May 1871. Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 19.
20. “I spent my early”: Marsh to Asa Gray, 9 May 1849, George Perkins Marsh Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont.
21. “a state of fearful”: Marsh to C.S. Davies, 23 March 1849, Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 106.
22. tasks “very light”: Marsh to James B. Estcourt, 22 October 1849, Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 107.
23. “very earth”: and following quotes: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851. Marsh, G. P. 1888, vol. 1, p. 215.
24. ‘subdued by long”: Marsh to Frederick Wislizenus and Lucy Crane Frederick Wislizenus, 10 February 1851, Marsh, G. P. 1888, vol. 1, p. 206.
25. ““restless activity”: Humboldt, A. 1849. Aspects of Nature, in Different Lands and Different Climates, with Scientific Elucidations. Translated by Elizabeth J. L. Sabine London: Longman, Brown, Green and John Murray, vol. 2, p. 11.
26. “political and moral”: Humboldt, A. 2009, p. 73.
27. “wherever he stepped”: 10 March 1801, Humboldt, A. 2003. Alexander von Humboldt. Reise auf dem Río Magdalena, durch die Anden und Mexico. Edited by Margot Faak. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2003, vol. 1, p. 44; see also Humboldt, A. 1811. Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. Translated by John Black. London and Edinburgh: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; and H. Colburn: and W. Blackwood, and Brown and Crombie, Edinburgh, vol. 3, pp. 251–52.
28. “most part barren”: Marsh to Caroline and James B. Estcourt, 18 June 1851; for travels in 1851, see Marsh to Susan Perkins Marsh, 16 June 1851, Marsh, G. P. 1888, vol. 1, pp. 227–232, 238.
29. “assiduous husbandry”: and following quote, Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851. Marsh, G. P. 1888, vol. 1, p. 215; see also Marsh, G. P. “The Study of Nature”, Christian Examiner, 1860, in Marsh, G. P. 2001. So Great A Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh. Edited by Stephen C. Trombulak. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, p. 86.
30. “nature in the shorn”: Marsh, G. P. 1857. Report on the Artificial Propagation of Fish. Burlington, Vt.: Free Press Print, p. 11.
31. “Man is everywhere”: Marsh, G. P. 2003. Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, 1864, facsimile of first edition. Edited by David Lowenthal. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, p. 36.
32. “all the forests”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 36, p. 234.
33. ‘small duties & large”: Marsh to Francis Lieber, 12 April 1860. George Perkins Marsh Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont.
34. “have been entirely disappointed”: Marsh to Henry and Maria Buell Hickok, 14 January 1862; Marsh to William H. Seward, 12 May 1864, Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 252; demanding new post: Caroline Marsh, 17 September 1861, 5 January 1862, 26 December 1862, 17 January 1863, Caroline Marsh Journal, Crane family papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, pp. 43, 94, 99, 107.
35. “rather knocked out”: Marsh, C. 1 April 1862, Caroline Marsh Journal, Crane family papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, p. 151; and “libricide”: Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 272.
36. “I do this”: Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, 17 October 1863, George Perkins Marsh Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont.
37. “Man the Disturber”: Charles Scribner to Marsh, 7 July 1863; Marsh to Charles Scribner 10 September 1863, Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. xxviii.
38. Marsh references to Humboldt: Marsh, G. P. 2003, pp. 13–14, 68, 75, 91,128, 145, 175ff.
39. “All nature is linked”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 96.
40. for “consumption”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 36.
# Humboldt had already seen these dangers and warned that the scheme to irrigate the Llanos in Venezuela by canal from Lake Valencia would be irresponsible. In the short‐term it would create fertile fields in the Llanos, but the long‐term effect could only be an “arid desert.” It would leave the region around Lake Valencia as barren as the deforested surrounding mountains.
41. reference for footnote: 4 March 1800, Humboldt, A. 2000, Alexander von Humboldt. Reise durch Venezuela. Auswahl aus den Amerikanischen Reisetagebüchern. Edited by Margot Faak. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000, p. 217; Humboldt, A. and A. Bonpland, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the Years 1799–1804. Translated by Helen Maria Williams. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and John Murray, 1814–1829, vol. 4, p. 154.
42. ‘shattered surface”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 43.
43. “a desolation almost”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 42.
44. “Let us be wise”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 198.
45. We can never know”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, pp. 91–92; see also p. 110.
46. “homo sapiens Europae”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 46.
47. Madison's speech: Madison, Address to the Agricultural Society of Albermarle, 12 May 1818, Madison, J. 2009. The Papers of James Madison: Retirement Series. Edited by David B., Mattern et al., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, vol. 1, p. 260–283; Wulf, A. 2011. Founding Gardeners. The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation. New York: Knopf, p. 204ff.
48. Bolívar's Decree: Bolívar, Decree, 19 December 1825, Bolívar, S. 2009, Doctrina del Libertador. Edited by Manuel Pérez Vila. Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Bibliotheca Ayacucho, p. 258.
49. “Measures for the Protection”: Bolívar, “Measures for the Protection and Wise Use of the National Forests”, 31 July 1829, Bolívar, S. 2003. El Libertador. Writings of Simón Bolívar. Edited by D. Bushnell. Translated by F.H. Fornhoff. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 199–200; Humboldt and quinine harvest: Humboldt, A. 1849, vol. 2, p. 319; Humboldt, A. 2003, vol. 2, p. 126–30.
50. “In Wildness is the”: Thoreau, “Walking”, 1862, (first delivered as lecture in April 1851). Thoreau, H.D. 1906: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Excursion and Poems, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, .vol. 5, p. 224.
51. “inalienable forever”: 15 October 1859. Thoreau, H. D. 1906. The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal. Edited by Bradford Torrey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, vol. 12, p. 387.
52. “national preserves”: Thoreau, H. D. 1906, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: The Maine Woods, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, vol. 3, p. 173.
53. “Humboldt was the great”: Marsh, G. P. “The Study of Nature”, Christian Examiner, 1860, in Marsh, G. P. 2001. So Great A Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh. Edited by Stephen C. Trombulak. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, p. 82.
54. “thus the earth is”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 187, for evils of deforestation, see pp. 128, 131, 137, 145, 154, 171, 180, 186–88.
55. “We are … breaking up”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 52; damage like earthquake, p. 226.
56. “Prompt measures”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, pp. 201–202.
57. “inalienable property”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 203; replanting forests, pp. 259ff, 269–280, 325.
58. “We have now felled”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 280.
59. “Earth is fast”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. 43.
60. rudest kick”: Marsh, G. P. 2003, p. xvi.
61. “epoch‐making”: Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. 304; Gifford Pinchot to Mary Pinchot, 21 March 1886, Miller, C. 2001. Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, Washington: Island Press, p. 392; for Muir, see Wolfe, L. M. 1946. Son of Wilderness. The Life of John Muir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 83.
62. 1873 Timber Culture Act and 1891 Forest Reserves Act: Lowenthal, D. 2003, p. xi.
63. “along the slope”: Hugh Cleghorn to Marsh, 6 Marsh 1868, Lowenthal, D. 2003, pp. 303–305.
64. “the fountainhead of”: Mumford, L. 1931.The Brown Decades. A Study of the Arts in America, 1865–1895. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931, p. 78
65. “The future … is more uncertain”: Marsh, G. P. 1861. Lectures on the English Language. New York: Charles Scribner, p. 637.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Andrea Wulf
Ms. Wulf is the author of The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of Obsession, Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation, Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens, and The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World. She lives in London; [www.andreawulf.com] or [[email protected]].